A missed connection on a single booking pays €250, €400 or €600 under EU261 — £220, £350 or £520 under UK261 — if you reached your final destination three or more hours late. The distance that sets the band is the whole journey, not the leg that ran late. A twenty-minute delay at the start can be worth the top band.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Operating airline] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Compensation claim, missed connection, Regulation (EC) No 261/2004
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Connecting at [Connection airport]
Flights [First flight number] and [Second flight number]
Date of flight [Flight date]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I travelled on a single booking, reference [Booking reference], from
[Departure airport] to [Final destination airport], connecting at
[Connection airport], on [Flight date]. Flight [First flight number]
arrived late into [Connection airport] and I missed my connecting flight
[Second flight number]. I was re-booked and reached
[Final destination airport] at [Actual arrival time], which is
[Hours and minutes late] after my originally scheduled arrival of
[Scheduled arrival time].
Under Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, compensation is set by
the delay at the final destination, not by the delay on the leg that
caused it. The great-circle distance from [Departure airport] to
[Final destination airport] is approximately [Distance in km] km. That
falls in the [Distance band] band, so the sum due is [Currency] [Amount].
I am not aware of any extraordinary circumstances, and the burden of
proving any rests with the airline.
Please pay [Currency] [Amount] within 14 days to: [Payment details].
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Check both flights sit on one booking reference. That is what makes the journey a single unit.
- Write down the arrival time at your final destination and the originally scheduled one. The gap is the claim.
- Take the distance from your first departure airport to your final destination, not to the connection point.
- Claim from the operating carrier of the leg that ran late, even if you booked through someone else.
- Attach both boarding passes, the re-booking confirmation, and the original itinerary showing the scheduled arrival.
Two separate tickets are usually two separate journeys. A self-transfer you booked yourself, on two booking references, is normally outside this claim: the first airline owes you nothing for the flight you missed on the second ticket. Check the booking reference on both boarding passes before you send anything.
Why does the delay at the connection not matter?
Because the regulation measures loss of time at the final destination. The Court of Justice settled it in Folkerts (C-11/11, 2013): compensation is payable to a passenger on directly connecting flights whose first leg was delayed by less than the Article 6 thresholds, but who arrived at the final destination three hours or more late. The connecting flights guide works through how that applies to your routing.
Which airline do I write to?
The operating air carrier of the flight that caused the problem — the airline whose crew flew the delayed leg, not the one whose website sold you the ticket. If the two legs were flown by different carriers under one code, see which airline pays on a codeshare. Where the airline you write to says the other one is responsible, send the same letter to both and say you have done so; the regulation makes the operating carrier liable and the two of them can settle it between themselves.
Does the whole journey have to be covered by EU261?
The journey must depart from an EU or UK airport, or be operated by an EU or UK carrier into one. A routing that starts outside the EU on a non-EU airline is generally outside the regulation — when EU261 covers a non-EU airline sets out the test.
One practical point before you send it. In Germanwings (C-452/13, 2014) the Court of Justice held that the arrival time is the moment at least one aircraft door opens, not touchdown and not reaching the stand. Airlines quote their own block-in times, so if your figure sits close to the three-hour line, ask them in the letter to state the arrival time they used and how they measured it.
Refused? Read extraordinary circumstances first, then escalate to the regulator.